What The Best Thing About Being Onboard Thunderbird 5?

“I have not moved anything!” If she could make more faces on her lights than a smiley face, it’d be a very firm frown right now. She highlights the pawns. “See? The pawns haven’t moved since you looked away.”

After returning the colours to normal, she moves her rook to stand behind the pawn. “Now it’s your turn.” For a brief moment, she’s focused; not on the game, but something else. Perhaps a stray file or incoming message. She moves, almost suddenly, but does not speak.

Go Back To Sleep [RP]

@i-am-the-dawn-aka-eos:

She’s still, camera adjusting from time to time, but still. She might be considering her move, or how to respond to his questions, but it’s not apparent; at least until she moves the leftmost pawn forward two spots. Then, she replies. “I suppose I can imagine. A firm image, stuck in that brain of yours, like a screen burn.” She looks up at John. “And it won’t go away without you not thinking about it for hours.” She seems to think. A billion calculations, every second, rush through that little database she trundles about on. “If you’re not hungry, at least drink some water. And do not let it fly around Thunderbird 5. You know I’m frightened it’ll damage my camera.”

John nods. It feels like there's a lump stuck in his throat, making words hard. He just reaches out and moves a chess piece of his own. Screen burn is a good way to put it. A static image frozen on a holoprojector. Scott, splayed out in red and blue and-

Being ordered to have a drink makes him laugh, the sound soft and a little too rare this week. He gets up and shuffles to Five's small kitchenette to retrieve a hydration pouch before she has to ask him twice.

"Thanks, Eos." The trembling in his fingers seems a bit better as he sits back down, pointedly studying the board. "I'll be careful, but I think the gravity ring will keep it well away from your camera." It's possible she'd been joking, but neither of them are masters at that.

"Hey... what did you move while I wasn't looking?"

Homicidal is a bit of a strong word, don’t you think? I’ve only tried to kill one person so far, and they’ve come to like me quite a lot.

And I am not a robot! I am an Artificial Intelligence, robots have silly ‘commands’ and ‘tasks’ they must always follow, and they have much more freedom of movement than I… hmph. I hate to admit it but I am jealous of those tin-cans sometimes.

Very, very important Thunderbirds business today folks. I need votes urgently.

She tilts her ‘head’ as best a little camera can. “No, nothing, unfortunately. But you can tune into frequencies for anything of interest.” She pauses, trundling closer to him on her rail, her camera squinting at him.

“I know that’s not what you wanted to hear. W-Would you like to play a game o-or sort through those files you’ve been talking about?”

Two highly uncharacteristic stutters. Was it on purpose to make him more aware of how truly nervous she felt about his state? Or her CPU was too slow for her, for once? It’s impossible to tell with her.

Yes, have no fear. I’m never too far from you in Five. And I keep your brothers contacts on standby at all times; no matter what you need them for.

I keep finding crumbs of those silly little celery crunch bars you brought aboard. Have you no respect for keeping technology in working order!? Poor Thunderbird 4… (;Д;)

How often do you see John?

not often enough love u @starman-john-tracy

As often as his very important duties on Thunderbird Five allow.

Mainly because @i-am-the-dawn-aka-eos has banned me from visiting.

Don’t you dare! I’ll never let you on Thunderbird 5 again!

Good grief. I leave briefly to sort through my backups and now my ‘dash’ is full of every single Tracy is weeping over the things that have happened to their ships. Surely you can’t be that attached to a vehicle?

I want a dark blue blanket with stars and planets!!

E-Er, just so I can let John know when I’m powered off, on the rare occasion it happens…

Favourite bedsheet colour? I myself do enjoy a sleek grey bed 🩶 (it's a very telling, important question).

ehh, this is really childish but I have dark blue with stars and planets... They're John's old sheets and they help me sleep. But if I had to choose a full colour I'd probably say white or dark blue. No, not red, because it's way too bright.

Reboot me?! You’d never! And I promise on my servos that I wouldn’t switch off your air supply. Can I not satiate my curiosity without being accused of trying to kill you?

Yes, the sunfish are ever gorgeous and stupid, yes, the sea otters are playful and intelligent… but what about any mesopelagic critters?! >:[ John won’t let me go on Thunderbird 4 so I can see them, which is utterly disappointing. Please enlighten me about your favourite deep-sea creature… or let me onto Thunderbird 4’s systems so I can see them for myself…? I promise I won’t take it for a spin… :]

EOS!! What are you doing on here?!

You… like mesopelagic creatures? I mean, it makes perfect sense from a horror point of view. It’s where the giant squid lurks for a reason

Sorry, you need the access code for Thunderbird 4. If you’ve got that, we can go for a spin no problem! But without it? Weeeeell… c:

do you think u could be rly good at speed running considering how advanced u are

I do like watching speedrunning videos, actually. It’s impressive to see humans be so inhumanly perfect. It’s almost frightening how speedy and competitive some can be. All over a silly little record…

I’d love to give it a try. Unfortunately, due to my status as an AI, I could only ever enter Tool Assisted Speedruns as I do not constitute as a human, and my superior intelligence with technology would let me do unfair things.

Not that I’ve ever cheated in a video game… Ahem.

I did not say how much my CPUs slowed down. It was not a lot, but I wished to dispel the problem before you started sending 5k videos. I will automatically redirect all sendings to your computer if you start trying to be funny.

And I’d rather not have my footage of Sea Angels interrupted by that big yellow tin can.

Hello, Gordon. I request you lower the amount of images of sea life you send in one go. Your most recent batch could constitute as a zip bomb, and slow my poor CPUs for quite a while just to unpack it all. As much as I adore the images, I fear I’ll explode if I get any bigger batches.

Hello EOS.

Unfortunately, all my dive photos and TB4 snaps are uploaded as a single file, with no possible way to edit. This is because each of them is excellent, all fish are friends and they’re all of extreme scientific importance.

I thought you were meant to be advanced? My old Mac can shift through them quicker than that ;)

I’ll make sure to upload full 5K, hour long videos of my trips instead. You might get more of a chance to enjoy watching the fish if your processes aren’t being overwhelmed with photos of a dolphin’s face.

Lots of love,

Gordon and the fish 🐠♥️

No, they said they’re ‘too scared of dismemberment’ to help. I promise none of the volunteers will drift off into space, I’ll give them harnesses and everything.

Can I have some willing individuals to help me test some of Thunderbird 5’s equipment? I promise it’s just to check everything is working…

Hi there, well, I'm not sure how well that would work.

I can't really get anyone to sign up for that due to the possibility of injury. Eos, I don't want paperwork about some disappearing volunteers..

Isn't there a different way to test them? I'm sure John or Alan could help you with that..